by Dakota West
“Oh!”
“Ahh!”
“That is COLD!”
“Holy SHIT that is cold!”
Trevor shook himself hard, spraying tiny droplets over to Sloane, who turned her face away.
“What, too cold for you?”
Austin turned to Trevor.
“Wasn’t this her idea?” he asked.
“I think it was,” said Trevor.
“There’s only one fair thing to do,” Austin said.
He advanced a couple of steps into shallower water, until his bellybutton was visible in the air. Trevor followed.
Sloane’s mouth went dry.
They’re both flirting with me now, she thought.
She’d suspected before, but now she was positive. Well, almost positive. She still wasn’t sure why they were bothering, or what their end game was. After all, she would only...
The answer hit her, and Sloane blinked.
Just as she did, Trevor casually put one hand on Austin’s shoulder and leaned, ever so slightly, into the other man.
“You’re lovers,” she blurted out.
For a moment, both men froze, Trevor’s hand still on Austin’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” she said, covering her mouth with both hands again.
The men exchanged a look, and Trevor leaned more heavily against Austin, their torsos touching.
“We should drag her in for that,” he said, his eyes still smiling.
Austin looped an arm around Trevor’s back. Sloane thought that her heart might stop beating.
How could she have discounted the whole “Shifters have triads, not couples” thing?
“Probably,” said Austin, and quick as a flash, he grabbed Sloane’s foot.
She shrieked, then scrambled backward on the rock, and Trevor flicked some of the freezing water at her.
“We can come get you,” he said. It was half an offer, half a threat.
“You can’t run,” said Austin.
Quickly, Sloane thought through the pros and cons. On one hand, that water was fucking cold. Ice cold. Super freezing cold.
On the other hand, it contained two extremely hot shifters who were, at that very moment, touching each other.
You’re never going to get this chance again, Sloane thought. Live a little.
“Okay, I’ll get in,” she said.
Be brave.
“But I don’t want to get my clothes wet,” she went on.
Austin’s eyebrows went up. Trevor grinned. She thought that her heart might beat straight out of her chest.
What are you doing? She thought, immediately followed by Did you really just say that?
“Okay,” Austin said.
“Turn around,” Sloane insisted.
Austin rolled his eyes dramatically, but he couldn’t hide his smile. Trevor covered his eyes with both hands. Sloane stood, then shook her head at him, and spun her finger in the air.
“All the way around,” she said.
They grumbled but complied.
In a flash, she had her shirt, bra, pants, and underpants off. She made herself do it fast so she wouldn’t lose her nerve, then hopped a few times on the rocks, getting her socks off of her feet.
Then she stood at the edge, staring into the pool of water, about four feet deep.
It’s so cold, she thought, already shivering.
“I don’t hear a splash,” said Austin.
“Don’t wimp out on us,” said Trevor.
Sloane took a deep breath, gritted her teeth together, and jumped.
It was even colder than she’d imagined. It was so cold that it nearly knocked the breath out of her, and for one terrifying moment underwater, she felt totally paralyzed.
Then she thrashed her arms, her feet found the bottom, and she stuck her head above water.
“OH MY GOD,” she shouted, wiping water off of her face with both hands. “This is so cold!”
“Duh,” said Austin. He flicked droplets of water into her face, and Sloane flicked them right back. The water came to just below her shoulders, and it was just cloudy enough that she couldn’t quite see her own nipples.
Of course, that meant she couldn’t see much of Austin and Trevor, either.
“Okay,” she said, still moving from leg to leg, as though any level of activity could possibly keep her warm. “What now?”
Silently, Trevor sank below the surface of the water, maintaining eye contact with her until the very last second.
Sloane looked at Austin.
“What’s he do—“
Trevor tugged on her ankle underwater, and Sloane went over, flailing back into the water, then came up again, sputtering.
“Unfair!” she laughed. “I’m already in your ice bath.”
Trevor shrugged. “You asked what was next,” he said.
Sloane put her hands on her hips in mock anger.
“All right, fine,” she said.
Then she grabbed Trevor’s shoulders and shoved as hard as she could.
Nothing happened.
Trevor raised his eyebrows at her, then took her wrists gently in his hands.
“How’s this going for you?” he asked, teasingly.
“Unhand me,” she commanded.
“Nope.”
Something swept her feet out from underneath her, and she fell backwards again. This time, though, Austin caught her before her face went under. His warm skin against hers felt like it left stripes of fire against her flesh, and for a moment, she looked up into his face, only inches from hers.
“Two against one is totally unfair,” she murmured. “Especially when you’re both about twice as tall as me.”
“I bet we could make it up to you,” Austin said.
Behind his head, Sloane could see Trevor’s arm, dripping wet, curl around Austin’s shoulder as Austin’s face came closer to hers.
This is really, terribly, super dumb, Sloane thought.
Just as their lips were about to touch, there was a huge noise on the other side of the swimming hole. Men shouted, branches snapped, and it sounded like someone was sliding down a leaf-covered hill.
The three swimmers snapped to attention, Austin pulling Sloane up straight.
She crouched, making sure that all of her bits were covered, even as she wondered how the hell she was ever going to get out of the freezing-cold swimming hole.
The man who’d practically fallen down the slope stood up, brushed himself off, and Sloane realized that he was wearing a uniform. A brown-gray police uniform. Her heart squeezed in her chest.
“Sloane Garcia?” He shouted, as two other officers came down the hill behind him, neither of them very sure of their footing.
I knew we shouldn’t have gone skinny dipping, she thought.
Chapter Nine
Austin
When the policemen first came tumbling down the hill, Austin held his breath until he could see their faces. Without realizing it, he moved himself slightly in front of Trevor and Sloane, trying to shield both of them with his body.
The first officer down the hill wasn’t a shifter. That much was obvious as he lost his footing and tumbled down the slope, getting his uniform all dirty. As he stood and brushed himself off, he tried to look imposing, but failed.
The other two had better luck on the hill, but not by a lot. Also human.
Austin relaxed a little. He didn’t like that a couple of human cops had found him and Trevor together, but it could have been much worse. About half the police force of Ponderosa County was lupine, and if it had been one of them, it would have been a matter of days — hours, even — before Trevor’s parents found out, and kicked him from the pack or worse.
Must be rookies here about the nudity, Austin thought. I guess someone saw us and reported it. That was fast, though.
He turned around to let Trevor and Sloane know that it was okay. Trevor had his hands on Sloane’s shoulders, his jaw set tightly. Sloane looked somewhere between nervous and scared, not that Aus
tin blamed her. Naked, female, and around five men all bigger than her wasn’t a place he’d want to be either.
“It’s fine,” he whispered. Then he winked for good measure, and he could see Sloane’s shoulders droop a little bit.
Then the bottom police officer put a hand to his eyes, shading them against the light.
“Sloane Garcia?” he shouted.
Austin’s bear sat up, immediately on high alert.
What the hell do they want with Sloane? He thought. How do they even know her name?
Behind him, she moved to one side, still mostly underwater, and spoke up.
“Yes?” she called out, her voice high with tension.
“You’re under arrest,” the cop called out.
“Bullshit,” said Austin. “For skinny dipping?”
“For the attempted murder of James Cookson.”
For half a second, time completely froze.
Then Austin’s bear stood up on its hind legs and roared.
Behind him, he could hear Trevor growling. Sloane’s mouth was open in shock.
“What?” she said.
“Come on out of there,” the officer said, looking disdainfully at the freezing cold water.
“How about you come in here and get her,” snarled Trevor.
“You can arrest her if you can get her,” added Austin. His heart thumped wildly and he could barely control himself, between the threat to his maybe-mate and the smell terror rolling off of her.
The police officer just unclipped his gun. Trevor’s growl got deeper, and Austin could practically feel the fur itching just below his skin.
PROTECT MATE. PROTECT MATE, his brain screamed at him, and he stared the officer down, the only sounds the wind through the trees and the furious galloping of Sloane’s heart.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” the policeman said. “We just want the girl, but we’ll take her however we have to.”
Austin felt one hand on his arm, and he looked down, his racing mind temporarily interrupted.
“Calm down,” Sloane said.
All of a sudden, she looked small, cold, and lost. Her eyes were huge in her face, and for the first time, Austin felt like he towered over her.
She reached out to Trevor as well, taking him by the shoulder.
“I don’t want you guys to get shot,” she said, and Austin could hear the quaver in her voice, despite her bravado. “I didn’t kill whoever James Cookson is, so this is probably a misunderstanding.”
“Let’s go,” the cop shouted.
“Okay,” Sloane called back to him, and began walking for the rock with her clothes on it.
Austin grabbed her hand.
“Don’t say anything without a lawyer,” he said.
“Find my phone and call my parents,” she said. “They’ll help.”
“Other way!” called the cop.
“I’m putting clothes back on, or did you want me to walk all the way down this trail naked?” Sloane shouted back.
Trevor and Austin exchanged a look, and Austin found a tiny spark of hope.
Atta girl, sassing a cop, he thought.
The cop didn’t say anything, just crossed his arms and frowned. The other two watched from the banks of the swimming hole as well, hands hovering near guns.
Sloane dressed quickly, her back to everyone. Even given the circumstances, and despite the freezing-cold water, he couldn’t help but appreciate her naked. Her full hips, narrowing to a small waist, the thighs that he could only dream of burying his face in...
He and Trevor got out of the water as she crossed the narrow stream where the water emptied out of the swimming hole. Sloane skipped from stone to stone, finally reaching the shore where they all stood.
Austin and Trevor were both considerably bigger than the cops.
I bet we could take them, Austin thought, the itch starting under his skin again. No one would ever find their bodies out here.
It was a surprisingly tempting idea. Get rid of the policemen, grab Sloane, and run. Anything to keep her out of danger.
Well, except probably the entire Sherriff’s force in Ponderosa knows that they went out to arrest her, Austin remembered. It would take them an hour to figure out what happened, and then we’d be fugitives, and that wouldn’t help her.
Besides, she didn’t do anything. She’ll be out by dinner.
“Who’s James Cookson?” Sloane asked. Her voice sounded fine, even though Austin could still sense the anxiety and adrenaline coming off of her in waves.
“That’s the young man you shot with a tranquilizer dart,” one of the other officers spoke up.
Austin wanted to punch him in his stupid, smug face.
Sloane looked aghast.
“I didn’t shoot anyone,” she said, taking a step back.
“Lawyer,” Trevor said quietly.
“But I didn’t—”
He just shook his head.
“They already think you did it. They’ll trick you into confessing, or worse.”
Sloane swallowed and nodded. Austin turned his head and looked at his partner. Where had that come from?
The cop shot Trevor a glare, then turned to Sloane.
“Can you behave if I don’t cuff you?”
“You need someone to lead you up the hill?” she asked.
They glared at each other for a moment. Then the cop gestured at the hill, and Sloane started up it, much more nimbly then the men following her.
Austin and Trevor stood at the bottom, watching Sloane climb. Austin felt like someone had his heart in a vice, and there was nothing he could do about it.
The second cop started up the hill, and the third walked over to them. He looked Trevor up and down, as if he was trying to establish dominance over Trevor, but Trevor stood to his full height and crossed his arms, not about to take shit from some human with false swagger.
“You’re Buck Reynolds’s boy, right?” the cop asked.
“That’s right,” Trevor said.
The cop just nodded. Then he looked from the very naked Trevor to the very naked Austin and back, a slight smirk forming on his face.
“Well, have a nice day,” he said.
Then he climbed the hill behind Sloane and the other two cops, until all three were out of sight.
“Fuck,” said Trevor. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
In seconds, they were walking back toward their clothes.
“I’ll call my lawyer cousin,” Austin said.
“I don’t even know who that cop was,” said Trevor.
“Julius will know what to do. He used to work for the district attorney. Sloane will be fine, she obviously didn’t try to kill anyone.”
Trevor grabbed Austin by the shoulder, and both men stopped for a minute, Trevor’s gray eyes boring into Austin.
“They know about us now,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” Austin said. “You’re right. This was stupid, we should never have done this.”
Trevor looked down, and Austin could see a slow smile forming on his mate’s face.
“I’m glad we did,” he said. “Besides Sloane getting arrested, this was the best time I’ve had in years. I always wanted to act like you were mine in public.”
Austin leaned his forehead against his mate’s.
“Maybe it’s for the best,” he said. “No more pretending after this. We’ll leave Cascadia, move somewhere else where no one knows or cares about the differences between shifters.”
Trevor bit his lip.
“I’ll have to leave Lizzy and Tim,” he said. “I wanted them to have a different upbringing than I had, you know.”
“I’m sorry,” Austin said. Now his heart felt like it was being squeezed from both sides at once, by Sloane hiking down to the police station and Trevor going back to the home he’d been kicked out of once already.
“It’s not your fault,” Trevor said. “I just wish I could help them.”
Austin planted a kiss on his mate’s lips, lon
g and firm. Then they pulled apart.
“Midnight tomorrow?” he asked.
“If everything goes well,” Trevor said.
“I’ll wait for you,” Austin said.
Trevor just nodded once.
Then, in the blink of an eye, a wolf stood where Trevor had, and the wolf gently scooped his clothes up in its mouth and set off at a run.
Chapter Ten
Trevor
Just beyond the tree line, still in wolf form, Trevor sat and watched. He dropped his clothes onto the ground, then laid down for a moment. He needed to catch his breath — he’d run all the way back to the Red Sky ranch — and think about what he was going to do.
The moment his father found out that he was mated to a bear, Trevor knew he’d get kicked out again. There was a slight chance that his father would give him the option to break it off and stay, but that was completely out of the question. Austin was his mate, and there was no breaking that tie.
They’d have to leave Cascadia. Even though Buck was pretty unpopular with his pack at the moment, he was still their leader, and wolves were loyal above all else. Buck might have gotten some of them killed, but it had been through idiocy, not malice.
I have to say goodbye to the kids first, Trevor thought. I have to tell them I’m sorry.
His heart felt like it was turning inside out, and if he’d been human, he might have almost cried.
How many adults can fail Lizzy and Tim? He thought.
First their parents had died in a terrible crash, then they’d gotten stuck with an alcoholic and an authoritarian maniac. Trevor’s sister was dedicated beyond reason to their father and the pack, and that left Trevor himself, the black sheep of the family, as the only one who was any sort of good influence on them.
Well, there goes that, he thought. I tried.
I hope I did enough.
Then he had to pack. He didn’t really want to rely on being a wolf again, even though it had gotten him through the tough first year when he was eighteen. It was hard to spend so much time as an animal without hearing that sweet but deceptive siren call of becoming feral, and he’d seen a feral shifter up close. He’d been able to sense how trapped she felt, both in his horrible father’s cage and in her bear.
